MoveOn.org petition calling on DOJ to investigate deaths of Boeing whistleblowers passes 25k signers

A MoveOn petition pushing for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the deaths of former Boeing employees Joshua Dean and John Barnett has surpassed 25,000 signatures as of Thursday afternoon. 

“The dangerous trend of Boeing aircraft accidents is extremely alarming, and it's time the Department of Justice investigate these tragic whistleblower deaths and the mounting allegations from employees that Boeing has sought to silence those that spoke out over safety concerns,” said MoveOn spokesperson Britt Jacovich. 

Dean, 45, was a former quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems from Wichita, Kan. and reportedly died from a staph infection called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. He had raised safety concerns with the Boeing 737 Max plane.

Two months prior, Barnett, 62, who raised similar concerns, died in Charleston, S.C. from what appeared to be a "self-inflicted gunshot wound," the coroner had stated.

MoveOn is a progressive advocacy organization first established in 1998 and became well-known in the election cycle for its anti-Iraq war stance.

In a press release about the petition, MoveOn.org said that over the last 3 months a Boeing plane's "door plug exploded on an Alaska Airlines flight" while another Boeing plane "nosedived mid-flight, injuring 50 people on a Latam Airlines flight and a United Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing when a wheel fell off the Boeing plane, damaging and crushing several cars in San Francisco." The group also noted in the press release that in 2018 and 2019, "there were two Boeing crashes that resulted in the death of more than 340 people."